Kiwanis launch annual rose sale

July 31, 2014

The Steubenville Kiwanis Club members launched their annual rose sale, the club's key fundraiser, as specifics were reviewed at the organization's roundtable luncheon meeting held Tuesday at the YWCA of Steubenville.

President-elect Kris Haught is chairing the sale, with the price of a dozen roses selling for $19 this year, reflecting a $1 increase.

Steubenville Kiwanis Club President George Pugh, right, chats with Philip Fitzgibbons, assistant professor of anthropology and director of the anthropology program at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, one of several speakers giving a presentation to the club during July.-- Janice Kiaski

Kiwanians will be taking orders with payment for the long-stemmed roses available in a variety of colors through Sept. 16. Local deliveries will be made on Sept. 23 to the Steubenville, Wintersville, Mingo Junction, Toronto, Brilliant, Weirton and Follansbee areas.

Mail-out orders are available for $25 in the 48 continental states. They will go out the week of Oct. 7.

For information, contact Tom Timmons at (304) 314-9574.

Last year, club members sold 1,195 dozen roses with 118 mailed and 1,077 delivered locally. The club generated a profit of about $8,500, it was noted.

The club's meeting Tuesday included a farewell to Kiwanian Chrissy Taylor, who has resigned from her job and the club to pursue full-time motherhood duties. Phyllis Riccadonna thanked her for her service to the organization.

At an earlier Kiwanis meeting this month, it was announced that George Pugh, president, and members Larry Coleman and Riccadonna attended the Division 21 meeting held in Canfield.

Coleman explained that Division 21, which the local club is part of, will merge with Division 25, encompassing the Warren area. Effective Oct. 1, it will be the newly created Division 26. Dues will increase from $7 to $9.

Among July speakers for the club's noon luncheon meetings lined up by Dave Skiviat, program chair, was Philip Fitzgibbons, assistant professor of anthropology and director of the anthropology program at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Fitzgibbons told the Kiwanians he always likes to take the opportunity to express his gratitude that the late Jack Boyde and his family were responsible for bringing him to the university "and letting me get involved in my passion, which is studying the past, both by reading about it in books and by being in the ground."

"Franciscan University has been involved in the field of archaeology going back to the time when Jack Boyde came in the probably 1960s and especially got going in the late 1970s and early 1980s in conjunction with two projects, one of which is still ongoing today," he said, referring to archeology digs at Historic Fort Steuben.

Boyde died in 2000, and Fitzgibbons took on the project that has searched for evidence of the past.

Fitzgibbons showed slides of excavation work of a prehistoric site in the Reed's Mill area and mentioned other historical archaeological digs elsewhere in Jefferson County, including one near Mount Pleasant.

"When I take groups out to sites, there are two things I like to tell them to do out there - find something interesting and to simply get trained to do archaeology," he said.